There is no easy way to get to Rome from Vancouver. No matter how you do it, the journey is still an endurance test.

Loraine and I and two others in our group flew Via Frankfurt. Others flew via Amsterdam. We arrived first about 2 p.m. Rome time.

Maureen Rothwell

It took 18 hours from stepping out of my door in Burnaby to step into our four-star hotel The Mediterraneo on Via Cavour in the centre of Rome. It is basically a matter of giving up a night’s sleep. I eventually turned in here about 24 hours after leaving Vancouver. I think everyone’s journey was the same.

I find you always arrive in Rome a little bleary-eyed from the journey, but it is quite astonishing how quickly you bounce back.

Sitting on the hotel’s beautiful rooftop garden sipping a cool glass of prosecco with all of Rome spread out in front of you is a big boost. To the left, we have the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which looks even more beautiful with its ambient lighting at night. We can see the Colosseum and Michelangelo’s dome on St. Peter’s, the Emmanuel II monument and the fountains in Piazza Republicca.

Today, Saturday, we are going to our first garden destination – Tivoli to see Villa d’Este, the world’s greatest water garden, and we will also visit Villa Adriana, which dates back to Emperor Hadrian in 2 A.D.

Garden group.

Tonight we will have our Welcome Dinner at a local restaurant. We decided against having it yesterday because we thought everyone would be too shattered from travelling. I think that was a good call.

Will post some photos of Villa d’Este and Villa Adriana later. Here’s a pic of one of our group, Maureen Rothwell, enjoying a bowl of ice cream on the roofgarden here at the Mediterraneo. The other photo is of the majority of the group getting a briefing from our Italian guide Antonella.

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